2018 National Mentoring Month

National Mentoring Month focuses national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how each of us can work together to increase the number of mentors to help ensure positive outcomes for our young people. This campaign celebrates mentoring and the positive effect it can have on young lives. Join our Movement today!

Be Someone Who Matters To Someone Who Matters!

Happenings

CMM Mentors Finish Strong this Year!

Each year we strive to hear from our mentors regarding their experience with the program and their mentee's. We are so grateful for their commitment to this process. With 90% of them responding, here is what they reported back to us! Click to download the survey.

Opening Letter CMM

Cobb Mentoring Matters is back for another exciting year of mentoring. The 2017-2018 school year brought in 36 new mentors. The year filled with a lot of excitement and progress for our students and our mentors. The program continues to grow deep roots in the schools which results in establishing relationships that matter. Most of our returning mentors request to remain working with their previous student. This achieves the ultimate goal for our students to develop a lifelong friendship with their mentors. In the event that the student is no longer at the school, because of the connection with the school, mentors ask to be re-matched with a new student.

School Counselors and Teachers understand the value in having a caring adult serving as a mentor by offering students support, academically or with social and peer issues. We receive a number of requests that require a specific skillset and time sensitive. To this end, Cobb Mentoring Matters will continue to provide quality meaningful training to our mentors, keeping them engaged and relevant.

Our community partners serve as a tremendous support to our program, quality mentors, in-kind donations, such as sponsorships for the holidays and hygiene bags or monetary donations. All of which help us to keep the program resilient. I am proud to report that our districts’ mentoring program is a one of a kind. Relationship with our national affiliate, Mentor: The National Mentoring Partnership, ensures that we keep pace with the research and best practices of mentoring.

In closing, if you have a heart to serve and a love for children, please do not hesitate to give us a call and “Join Our Movement”.

1 in 3 American youth don’t have a mentor’s support outside of their family. Become a #MentorIRL this National #MentoringMonth to provide the guidance they need.

MENTOR, a national mentoring partnership, recently selected Cobb County School District mentor coordinator, Maryellen Gomes, as one of nine fellows in MENTOR’s inaugural 2017 National Mentoring Summit Fellowship Program.

Gomes was awarded free admission and a travel stipend to attend the summit in Washington, D.C. February 1-3. The gathering, which is the only national convening of youth mentoring practitioners, researchers, philanthropic partners and leaders, provides attendees with an opportunity to engage in skill-building, peer-learning, advocacy and networking.

With assistance from a founding sponsorship from AT&T and others, MENTOR launched the Summit Fellowship Program to provide a select number of scholarships to leaders from mentoring programs operating with a budget of $150,000 or less.

The Vinings Lake Church of Mableton recently hosted a Christmas party for south Cobb area mentors and their students, who were matched through Cobb Mentoring Matters. The event allowed family members to mingle with their children’s mentors, while also allowing the children to spend time with their mentors outside of school and further build the mentor-mentee relationship. After the party one of the mentors expressed his gratitude.

“I think I had more fun than the children,” said Paul. “It was so enjoyable thanks to everyone that planned it. I felt so welcome I didn’t want to leave.”
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Cobb Mentoring Matters Conducts Fall Training for Mentors

Mentors in the Cobb Mentoring Matters (CMM) program attend training September 16. Forty mentors placed in 19 different Cobb County schools engaged in a training lead by Stuart Smith, who is a licensed psychotherapist serving clients in the greater Atlanta area.

The topic for the training was Positive Youth Development. Smith taught mentors how to assist students in embracing the attributes of competence, compassion, confidence, caring and contribution. Smith utilized many of the mentors own match experiences to discuss the implications and the impact of risks versus rewards for their mentee’s development and how to bring about positive change.

Cobb Mentoring Matters Program Celebrates National Mentoring Month

Cobb Mentoring Matters, our district's school-based mentoring program, is celebrating National Mentoring Month and the great work that our mentors are doing.

This January marks the 15th annual National Mentoring Month, and Cobb Mentoring Matters is participating in this campaign aimed at expanding quality mentoring opportunities to connect more of our community’s young people with caring adults.

“There is a powerful mentoring effect demonstrated by research and the experiences of young people who are connected to a mentor in real life,” said Maryellen Gomes, mentor coordinator for the Cobb County School District. “Mentoring is linked to improved academic, social, and economic prospects for young people, and that ultimately strengthens our community.”

From the Coordinator

Cobb Mentoring Matters continues to forge ahead! I can’t say enough about the caliber of mentors that come through this program.
Many of which have been with us since we began in 2012. I’ve said this before that mentoring is not for the faint at heart!
Those matches that are successful, are those whose mentors understand that the commitment isn’t just showing up for 1 hour per week,
although that is the beginning. More than this, it’s the understanding that this is a young person that is in need of a caring adult to support,
nurture and celebrate who they are. Most of the students referred to our program come with issues far beyond what
any child should have to deal with. I thank the school counselors for having their finger on the pulse of their
schools and understand how important a mentor can be, at just the right time.

After working with schools since our inception in 2012, we have positioned ourselves to be a unique but effect resource for school counselors and teachers to rely on. Whether it is the mentor that is assigned to a new student coming to our district that is 3 reading levels behind in the class and the mentor worked diligently with the teacher to get her where she needed to be in 4 months’ time. Or the middle schooler whose home life was so turbulent, that it prevented him from focusing on his school work. His behavior began to speak volumes, until his mentor gave him the opportunity to not only share his pain, but redirect it and see his life through a different lens! Or the student that lost both parents before reaching middle school and the mentor who had been matched twice before, when called, didn’t hesitate to be matched with him and they are going strong into their 2nd year. I could tell you story after story of the impact these mentors are making with our students. Without question, they are the best of Cobb County has to offer!

I would like to thank all the mentors that are returning this year! We already have a group of new volunteers that are ready to step into the role as mentors and friends to our students. The need is great, so we hope to double our matches this year. I’d like to leave you with this quote that I believe embodies just what mentoring is meant to do;

If you would like to become a mentor with Cobb Mentoring Matters or would like to know more about joining this movement, please give us a call or visit us on Facebook.

Sincerely,
Maryellen Gomes
Mentor Coordinator

Testimonials

“Today she mentioned her interest in learning to improve her reading was because of me.” - Celia

“My mentee has learned there are things in life you must do even if you do not want to do them.
He knows I will not give up on him. He must do the work to reach his goals.” - Paul

"It is good to know that mentoring really can make a difference and that our work is appreciated. I want to express that
being a mentor also enriches my life and for that one hour a week, being focused on my mentee reminds me to be mindful in
other areas of my life as well." - Trisha

"We only had a brief chat but she told me that she really wanted a mentor." - LaShonda

"There was not a lot of verbal communication between us, I started to use a thumb ball activity, and it has helped her open up
to me more, we use it every session now, also playing monopoly has got us talking more!" - Ellen